Snow in the Desert

It snowed here in February. That isn't necessarily a surprising statement in other parts of the country (or world), but here in Tucson, snow at all is a rare occurrence, never mind snow that actually accumulates beyond the uppermost peaks of the mountain ranges. Here are some photos, mostly from Sabino Canyon, the day after the snowfall.

The snow retreated visibly up the mountain slopes as the morning wore on.

The saguaros look particularly incongruous with the snow.

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus)

The entire Catalina range. I wish this happened more often. It was so beautiful.

Petroglyphs!

One of the most interesting things about living in the Southwest--especially compared to other parts of the United States--is the visible prehistory. Petroglyphs are just one example; ruins such as Casa Grande or Montezuma Castle are just a few of the more famous sites in the region. Here are two less famous local petroglyphs sites within an hour of Tucson.

The first is Picture Rocks, on the grounds of the Redemptorist Renewal Center. Luckily, they don't mind visitors and will even point you in the right direction.

The petroglyphs are on a small hill and seem to cover most of the visible rock faces. Apparently, there are well over a hundred panels containing rock art, with the majority on the west-facing side of the hill.

 How many do you see?

It probably comes as no surprise that I have a particular soft spot for the zoomorphic ones.

The second site is just a little ways to the south in Saguaro National Park, on the Tucson Mountains (west) side, at a site called Signal Hill. It is an easy walk from a picnic area, but you can make it part of a longer hike if you wish.

This is the iconic spiral often pictured in association with Signal Hill. The spiral is a common petroglyph form, and actually even more broadly, it's a common motif in prehistoric art globally.

I think the hominoid-looking petroglyphs at Signal Hill are often overlooked because they're slightly separate from most of the others and best seen from a few hundred feet down the wash.

While the petroglyphs were, of course, spectacular, this flower also caught my eye. It's beautiful, slightly odd looking, and quite distinctive.

It was an easy one to identify: a lyreleaf jewelflower (Streptanthus carinatus), a member of the brassica family. And what a great name, huh?

Olympic National Park: Ruby Beach

Last December I got to spend a little time in Olympic National Park. I had been once before, but only up Hurricane Ridge; this time, we drove out to the coast. But first, we stopped briefly at Lake Crescent.

Then we headed out to Ruby Beach. A storm had just torn through the region, leaving much of the area without power for several hours to days. Although there was less debris washed up than we expected, it was still a bit chilly and blustery, with some fun waves.

We couldn't quite believe our eyes as we walked down onto the beach and saw...

A bald eagle pair!

I was particularly excited, as I hadn't seen a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in several years, and probably not more than one at the same time since a family trip to Alaska more than a decade ago.

 

This impressive whale bone was sitting on the beach.

While these birds were too far away to see clearly, they were presumably some type of cormorant (Phalacrocorax), given the wing-spreading, which is generally considered a wing-drying behavior, although it may have additional purposes.

The iconic view of the arch.

And to cap off a wonderful day, on the drive back, we had a nice surprise as we drove through Forks: a large herd of elk (Cervus canadensis) on the tiny airstrip. Unfortunately the late was fading, but I got a few shots that weren't too terribly blurry.

Organ Pipe National Monument

I spent part of Thanksgiving weekend last year hiking and camping in Organ Pipe National Monument. I highly recommend a visit, although its proximity to the border lends some dystopian undertones. The monument is, of course, named for the organ pipe cactus that inhabit it. Although relatively common in the Mexican part of the Sonoran desert, organ pipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi) is rare in the United States because it is highly sensitive to frost.

Organ pipe cactus therefore tends to cling to the southern faces of hills and ridges, at least in this northern part of its range, where the extra sunlight can be crucial.

They are remarkably large and really quite impressive plants.

Here are a few close-ups.

I tried to capture just how towering these cacti are, something the typical shots tend to miss.

I particularly like the curly arms of this one. It almost looks like it's reaching for something.

This photo shows some of the similarities between the organ pipe and the saguaro.

The ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) was also particularly spectacular. I hadn't realized that they turn colors, just like deciduous trees! We saw the whole spectrum from fresh green leaves, through yellow and orange, to dark red.

While this flower look an awfully lot like notch-leaf scorpion-weed (Phacelia crenulata), the bloom is totally out of season, which is apparently in the spring not the fall.

Desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua)

Here's a close-up of a totally different type of cactus. I think this is a teddy bear cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii), so called because the density of the spines makes it almost look soft.

The first day we hiked up Alamo Canyon. In addition to many beautiful organ pipe cacti, features of this hike included the ruins of a ranch, with a brick house and wooden corral, as well as a small creek with tadpoles.

This one already had its back legs!

We camped in the back-country amidst the saguaros.

Then, in the morning, we hiked up Mount Ajo. Here's a view from near our campsite looking up into the mountains.

And here's the view partway through the hike, looking northwest, back towards our campsite.

Spotted in the middle of the trail...

I don't think we quite made it to the very summit of Ajo, which would have required heading north along the ridge for another couple of miles, but we did crest the ridge itself, from which we could see the Tohono O'odham reservation stretching out in the distance. I particularly enjoyed the striping pattern, presumably formed by the channeling of water and the increased vegetation that accompanies it.

On the hike back we had clear views to the south. The Mexican border is only about 10 miles away.